


Bujo

by seeminglyincurablesentimentality (myinnerchildisbored)



Series: Rose Shelby vs. All the Bastards [1]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 18:24:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18744586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myinnerchildisbored/pseuds/seeminglyincurablesentimentality
Summary: Rose and Finn are off to the fair - what could possibly go wrong...





	Bujo

“Where’d you steal this?” Finn asked, eyeing the bottle of whiskey suspiciously.

“From where it’s not goin’ to be noticed,” she said sweetly.

She’d even put a ribbon round the bottleneck. Presentation was everything when you were giving a gift.

“It’s the kind you like.” Rose smiled at her uncle, her eyes large and, hopefully, innocent.

Finn took the bottle and weighed it in his hand.

“No,” he said.

“It is.”

“True. But I’m not takin’ you. Not unless Tommy says you’re allowed.”

Rose’s smile disappeared.

“Come on,” she whined. “I’ve not been for ages and ages and ages. And the Lees’ll be there. I’ve not seen anyone in forever. I-“

“There’s no amount of drink going to make up for what he’ll do to me – and you – if I’ll take you without his say so, Ro.” Finn broke the seal and sniffed the whiskey appreciatively.

“But-“

“Have you even thought of asking permission?”

“No.”

“Look, you’ve said yourself, it’s been ages. He might’ve forgotten…”

Rose laughed bitterly.

“Yea, orright,” Finn conceded. “No chance of that. But maybe he’s feelin’ generous, if you get him in a good mood.”

“But you’d take me?” Rose asked. “If I get him to say yes?”

“Yea, I’ll take you.” Finn grinned at her and took a swig. “Now, fuck off. I’ve work to do.”

“Big, important man…” Rose grumbled and left him to his ledgers.

#

Her father was in for dinner. This was both rare and a great stroke of luck.

“How’s Rosie?” he asked once he’d demolished the better part of his plate.

“Grand, thank you,” she said. “How’s yourself?”

“Can’t complain.”

Rose aimed a gentle kick at her brother’s leg under the table. Charlie looked at her startled, the remembered his line. Rose had promised him her collection of spent bullets if he played his part well enough.

“Rosie’s won a prize,” he announced.

“Ah, Charlie…” Rose looked down at her plate, forcing a blush on her face.

“Has she now?” Tommy raised an eyebrow at her. “What sort of a prize?”

“It’s not a prize, not really,” she said quietly.

“It’s ‘cause she’s the best at the maths,” Charlie went on. “Aren’t you, Rosie?”

“S’pose so,” she said.

“Is that right?” her father asked. “Who says?”

“Mister O’Dowd made everyone take a test,” Rose explained. “I did best, apparently.”

“In the whole class?” She could tell he was loving this.

“No…” she said slowly.

“No?”

“In the school,” Rose smiled up at him, soaking up his pride and confident that he would never check. He’d better things to do.

“They gave her chocolate,” Charlie said. “A huge thing of it.”

“Did they now?”

“Yea,” Charlie grinned from ear to ear. “She let me eat most of it, didn’t you, Rosie?”

Rose carved a piece of potato and crammed it into her mouth, waiting, biding her time.

“Well done, my little love,” Tommy said.

They ate on in silence for a while, until Rose kicked Charlie again.

“Uncle Finn’s going to the fair, he says,” Charlie piped up obediently. “In…ah…in…”

“In Cannock,” Tommy said.

“Yea,” Charlie nodded. “Is he buyin’ horses?”

“I shouldn’t think so.”

“When’s this?” Rose asked casually.

“Saturday,” her father said.

“Are you goin’ as well?”

“Not til late, if at all.”

Rose attacked what was left of her dinner with supreme concentration. She allowed as much time to pass as she could bear.

“Da?”

“Yes, Rosie?”

“Could I maybe go, too? To the fair?”

“Ah, Rosie…”

“I could go with Finn in the mornin’,” she said, “and back with you, if you come?”

“That’ll be right,” her father said drily. “Let you go off on your own.”

“Not on me own,” Rose disagreed. “With Finn. And there’ll be other people I know, probably?”

“It’s not other people I’m concerned about,” Tommy said.

“I’ll be good as gold,” Rose smiled at him. “I’ve been for ages already. Please? It’s just up the road. Please?”

“If I was to say yes-“

“Thank you-“

“Hold your horses,” he cut her off. “If I was to say yes, there’d be conditions.”

“What conditions?”

Tommy sighed.

“No entering races, for a start,” he said. “Not the horses, not ponies, not even bloody donkeys.” Rose lowered her head a little. “No trading in your boots for trinkets,” her father went on. “No robbing chooks and swapping them for firecrackers. No firecrackers at all, come to think of it, and no throwing them into the bonfire either. No running off into the night with the Lee girls looking for faeries in the woods. No climbing onto the vardos and jumping off. And you’re not to do any _dukkering_ under any circumstances.”

Rose’s history of going to fairs, suffice it to say, had not been without hiccups.

“Am I allowed to do singing?” Rose asked.

“Yea, but you’re not to take any money for it.”

“Orright,” she sighed.

“And,” Tommy eyeballed her over his empty plate, “if I hear you’ve gotten up to any nonsense, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“So, I’m allowed?” Rose asked, already grinning like a mad thing.

“Yea, god help us all, you’re allowed.”

“Thanks very much, da,” Rose squealed.

“No nonsense now, d’you hear me?”

“No nonsense, o’course.” Rose gave him her most solemn face. “None whatsoever.”

#

Of course, you couldn’t have a horse without dealing with its shite.

“Please, can I not just-“

“It’s this or you’re staying home,” her father cut her off.

In between them, on Rose’s bed, lay a light blue dress with an enormous white collar and cuffs, the skirt so pleated it looked like an accordion.

“But-“

“Best for the fair,” Tommy said. “That’s the way of it. You’ll not show me up looking like some workhouse urchin.”

“I won’t be able to do anythin’,” Rose protested.

“What’re you planning on doin’?” he shot back. “ ‘cause if you can’t do it in this, you shouldn’t be getting up to it in the first place.”

Rose growled.

“Fine…”

“You’re welcome to stay here.”

“No, no, it’s orright. It’s _lovely_.” Rose forced some brightness into her tone. “Just-“

“What?”

“Can you help me with the buttons on the back?” she asked resignedly. “It’s like a bloody straightjacket, this.”

“Good,” he said. “Might keep a madwoman from causing trouble.”

#

Finn had not yet turned the engine off when Rose attempted to leap from the car. He just managed to catch her by the collar of her coat.

“Get off-“

“Right, now, you…” Finn cleared his throat and put on a vague approximation of a stern grown-up face. “See that tent over there?”

“No, I’ve gone blind,” Rose snapped, trying to pry his fingers off. “Yes, Finn, I see the tent.”

“I’ll be round there, mostly,” he said. “You need anythin’, you come find me.”

“Orright, orright…now let go of me, please?”

“No fuckin’ trouble, Ro,” Finn said firmly. “If it looks like trouble, you stay out of it.”

“Yes. Finn.” Rose rolled her eyes so vigorously it made her dizzy.

Very reluctantly her uncle released his grip on her coat and Rose shot off like a rabbit at the greyhounds. She weaved through the slowly building crowd, until she spotted Johnny Dogs perched on the corner of a makeshift paddock, rattling off names and odds at top volume.

“ _Sar’shan_ , Johnny Dogs?” Rose shouted over the noise around her.

“Busy,” he winked at her. “Girls are over by the trees, eh?”

Rose made her way to the edge of the fair and spotted a small cluster of vardos by the tree line, a little fire between them. She felt a little nervous suddenly. She’d not seen the Lees, Johnny Dogs excepted, since her father had dumped her on the road with them for months on end…it had been over two years. Things changed in two years, they could change loads in fact.

Before Rose could make up her mind about how to proceed, someone jumped on her back, wrapping arms around her neck and legs around her waist.

“Where’ve you been, ya fuckin’ hedgemumper?”

Rose spun like a top, trying to rid herself off her human cargo, fell backwards, rolled over and found her face milimetres from the broad grin of Ronja Lee.

“Surprise,” Rose said croakily.

“Good one, too,” Ronja said. “Come on, mammy and Sharon’ll loose their marbles when they see you.”

She took Rose by the hand and dragged her towards the camp, catching her up with family business at a million miles a minute. Ronja Lee had been Rose’s staunchest friend during her time with the Lee’s. She was only ten days older than Rose, but she still insisted on being her elder, superior and supreme protector. Once Ronja’d pushed Rose into a seat by the fire, it was as if she’d last been to visit a fortnight ago. Daia Lee, Ronja and Sharon and Jimmy’s mum, hugged Rose so long and so fiercely, she nearly cracked a rib.

“ _Bitti ozi_ ,” she beamed, kissing the top of Rose’s head. “You’ve grown, you’re almost not a child anymore. We’ll have to take you with us before you’re too old to come travelling anymore.”

Rose found her hands filled with a cup of tea and a chunk of honeycomb, her cheeks kissed and pinched, her whole body soaked with warmth.

“Oi,” Ronja hissed near her ear. “I’ve a pig to stick with Jimmy, but I’ll see you in a little bit. There’s a _bujo_ on the cards, if you’re up for it.”

“ ‘course,” Rose said without a second’s thought.

“Grand,” Ronja winked at her. “I’ll find you when I’m done, yea?”

“I’ll prob’ly still be here.” A very substantial breakfast was appearing in front of Rose now, about as much as the whole family might eat in between them on a normal morning. “ _Doosta, beebi_! I’ll explode if I try eat all that.”

A couple of hours later, after she’d answered daia Lee’s endless questions about school and home and Charlie, Sharon, the eldest Lee sister at thirteen, put her foot down, grabbed Rose by the arm and pulled her to a stand.

“We’ll take her to the music,” she told her mother when she started to protest. “You can’t just keep her for yourself – she’s our Rosie, too.”

They did go to the music, albeit with a detour into the wood, where they found Ronja with a funnel, tubes, some leather bags and a bucket of pig’s blood.

“What the bloody hell happened to you?” Rose asked, staring at Ronja’s blood splattered shirt. “Did you lie under the pig?”

“Nearly,” Ronja said. “Hold that still, yea?”

She handed Rose one of the smallest leather bags, stuck the funnel in and proceeded to pour the rig’s blood into it carefully.

“What’s this in aid of?” Rose asked. “What sort of _bujo_ ’ve you come up with now?”

A _bujo_ was a longstanding tradition involving gullible gadjes and elaborate pretend magic. If it went well, a _bujo_ could make some serious coin; if it went not so well, even just a little bit not well, it tended to end…not very well.

“You’re in for definite?” Sharon asked. “ ‘cause we’re not giving the game away if you’re piking.”

“Sure, yea,” Rose nodded.

“Grand,” Ronja grinned. “Because you, ‘mumper that you are, are goin’ blind tonight.”

“Do tell…”

So, they told. And even Rose, no stranger to schemes in the least, had to admit that it was genius. Solid, twenty-carat genius.

#

They hit the fair proper, once the Lee sisters were somewhat confident that Rose would be able to play her part in the evening’s undertaking.

There were races and auctions and cider and boxing and, over where the fire would be once the sun went down, music enough to make even legless people dance. Sharon dragged Rose into the cluster of singing girls and women and a moment later all of Rose was buzzing with rambling melodies.

 _If I were a blackbird, I’d whistle and sing and follow the ship that my true love sails in_ …

When she’d been on the road, the singing had been Rose’s favourite thing; because when it made her cry with heartsickness for home, and it almost always did, no one would mind. If they were singing at a fair, the money was much better if she cried as well.

_Nobody’s child, I’m nobody’s child, I’m like a flower, just growing wild …_

That’d been the one they’d let her sing alone, sometimes, and she’d loved it as much as she’d hated it.

_…no mammy’s kisses, no daddy’s smile, nobody wants me, I’m nobody’s child…_

This time Rose didn’t cry, she just stepped and clapped and sang along, remembering words she’d been sure she’d forgotten. She’d no idea how long she’d been clapping and singing, but before she knew it was dark, the fire was blazing and she was dying for a drink.

“Where you goin’?” Sharon shouted into her ear over a particularly raucous rendition of ‘The Molecatcher’.

“Cider,” Rose yelled back.

“Quick now, it’s nearly time.” Sharon gave her a meaningful look.

Rose dashed off, round the back off a tent for a shortcut to the watering hole, and very nearly fell over her uncle Finn, bedded down on his coat, wrapped around a girl. Cringing, Rose backed away silently; not that stealth was necessary, Finn and his lady were completely oblivious, fairly eating the faces of each other.

She bumped into Ronja Lee on her way back to the music, a bottle in each hand.

“Finn’s gettin’ his hole behind that bender,” Rose announced with a shudder.

“He’s never,” Ronja squealed and sprinted off towards the tent at top speed.

She was back within moment, her eyes wide.

“What?” Rose asked.

“You _kokko’_ s a brave man,” Ronja said gravely. “D’you not know who’s back there with him?”

“Some girl?”

“Some girl, my arse.” Ronja took a bottle of Rose and took a swig. “That’s Esmeralda Gold.”

“It’s not!” Rose nearly dropped the bottle. “Sure?”

“Definite.”

“Jaysis…orright…” Rose rubbed a hand over her face. “Not my circus not my monkeys, I s’pose.”

Ronja shrugged.

“We’ve our own circus to take care of, haven’t we, Rosie?” she said. “Let’s get Sharon, will we?”

“Already?” Rose asked, a slight twinge of guilt trembling in the deepest depth of her guts.

Ronja simply took her arm and pulled her into the crowd.

#

Once it was too dark to tell a stud from a knacker, the point of a fair was to eat, drink and make merry, essentially. Camps tended to form, as well.

The gadjes were usually on the far side, furthest from the fire and closest to the drink; and this was where Rose made her way now, walking cautiously, the bags of pigs’ blood burning holes into the pockets of her coat. She did a couple of rounds, working out the best spot to park herself, right between two large groups of men, all of them drinking but none of them plastered yet, by the looks of them anyway.

“Are y’lost, love?” Rose smiled up at the man swaying slightly above her.

“No, I’m alright,” she said. “My dad’s coming, he’s just getting the horses ready.”

“Tha’s good…”

“ _Ache mai devel_ …” Rose heard Sharon’s clear voice drifting from somewhere nearby, “..for your health as much as mine, sir… _po sastipeh_ …”

“Not more of them,” Rose groaned, giving the man an exasperated look. “What’s this one want?”

“Don’t rightly know,” the man said.

“ _Ache mai devel,_ little miss!” Sharon was right there now, right in front of Rose. “A blessing for you, a coin for me – and how ‘bout you, sir? You look like you need a piece of good luck…”

“Rack off,” Rose snapped. “Do I look thick? Blessin’s…”

Sharon cocked her head and glared at Rose. She was tall, Sharon, taller than some grown women Rose knew; no one around them had a chance of guessing that she was practically still a child.

“There’s no soul on earth can’t do with a little luck,” Sharon said sharply, “and no body alive that couldn’t be in better health, miss.”

“Well, I’m grand, so you can fuck off.”

“Ah, now…” the man next to her mumbled. “No need to be rude…”

“Rude?” Rose shouted, drawing a fair bit of attention now. “I’m rude? That one’s asking for money for nothing-“

“Nothin’, is it?” Sharon cut in, her voice rising above the din around them. “Me, offering you a piece of my very soul and all the goodness I’ve to give-“

“Pull the other one,” Rose interrupted. “You-“

“Get lost.” Rose looked Sharon square in the eye and spat on the ground before her.

Sharon let out a shriek of outrage and just as she did, Ronja appeared by her side, gripping her arm, trying to pull her away.

“ _Baba_ ,” she said imploringly. “Leave it. It’s not-“

“Hush,” Sharon hissed. “I’ll not stand for this - _te merav_ – that animal…”

“Please,” Ronja pleaded.

Rose rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

“You turn your back on me, _chav_ ,” Sharon said menacingly, “it won’t be good for you.”

There was a crowd forming now, staring at them in morbid fascination. Rose could see Ronja watching for familiar faces, ready to make an exit if one of their own should arrive. This sort of thing was not condoned. Gave their people a bad name, the grown-ups reckoned; and while Rose could sort of see the point, it was also great fun.

“Don’t… _nanti_ …really, there’s no need…” Ronja was nearly in tears now but Sharon shook her off.

“Apologise,” she order Rose imperiously.

“No.”

Rose gave Sharon a filthy look and turned, away from Sharon and away from their audience.

“You’ll not look at anythin’,” Sharon roared, “not anything - _te shordjol muro rat_ – if you won’t look at me like a decent human bein’! _Te merel muri shey,_ my face’ll be the last thing you’ll ever remember seein’!”

All eyes were on Sharon, rightly so, she was magnificent with rage.

Rose reached in her jacket pockets, slid a bag halfway up each sleeve, carefully withdrew her hands and let out a blood curdling scream. As she screamed, Rose started ripping and clawing at her eyes, bursting her bags and drenching her face in pig’s blood in seconds.

“Holy God,” someone shouted.

The crowd was roiling now. Rose was stumbling, screaming and bleeding all over the place.

“All of you!” Sharon Lee was hollering, turning a circle, men recoiling from her pointed finger as though it was a loaded gun. “Spitting on my blessings – all of you!”

Rose was on her knees now, howling like a beaten dog. From between her fingers and her blood, she tried to make out whether or not the gadjes were throwing money yet, trying to defend themselves from Sharon’s _amria_. It didn’t look like it, actually, it seemed the crowd was thinning rapidly.

“ _Chavaia,_ ” she heard Ronja yell. “Stop it, baba.”

Rose couldn’t look up to see what was happening, obviously, but it turned out this didn’t matter. There were hands on her now, lifting her off the ground, carrying her off.

Rose froze.

Whatever well-meaning ejit was after rescuing her, as soon as they washed her face, which they were bound to do, the jig would be up. Whimpering, her hands firmly over her eyes, she tried to think of something…anything…

“You’ll have something to cry about in a minute.”

Rose dropped her hands and snapped her eyes open. Her uncle Finn’s face with smeared with some of the pig’s blood and absolutely glowing with fury. When they got to the trees, into the proper dark, he dropped her.

“Ow, fuck’s sake,” Rose protested.

“Have you gone completely fucking mad?” Finn snarled. “You’re covered in fucking blood… he’s goin’ to murder you.”

“He’s not here, is he?” Rose scrambled to her feet.

“He’s having a bloody drink with Johnny Dogs and daia Lee by their camp.”

“Good shite,” Rose shrieked. “Orright…uhm…”

“You’re dead.”

The Lee camp was on the other side of the fair ground. Rose thought frantically.

“I’ll wash it off,” she said uncertainly. “If you get me a bucket and lend me your jacket, he might not notice…it’s dark enough…”

“D’you honestly think I’ll risk my arse covering this shite up for you?”

Rose groaned, tears threatening…and stopped.

“Yea,” she said. “Yea, I do.”

“Rosie, you’re-“

“I won’t grass, if you don’t,” Rose interrupted.

“What the fuck are you on about?” her uncle hissed.

“Esmeralda Gold.”

For a moment they stood, glaring at each other in the dark without actually seeing one another.

“You’ll be the fucking death of me, you know that,” Finn said finally.

Rose almost fell over with relief.

#

Finn dragged a bedraggled Rose towards the Lee’s fire not twenty minutes later. Tommy looked up from the flames when Finn deposited Rose in the circle of light and took a moment to fully appreciate his daughter’s state.

“How’d you manage this then?” he asked.

“I fell,” Rose offered.

“Into what?”

“The fire, the bloody ejit,” Finn answered in her place.

“Not the big one,” Rose said before her father had a chance to start shouting. “The other one, over by the paddock. We were jumping it, the girls and me. It was nearly out, it was tiny…”

“How’d you not clear it, if it was so tiny?”

“I did.” Rose was wringing her hands a little. “I did loads of times. But I tripped on a log the last time…”

She looked down herself and cringed. Her entire front was black and grey with soot, streaky where Finn had wiped at her with stout instead of water. The trough had been too far away, he’d claimed, but Rose was fairly certain he’d done it to annoy her.

“Did you get burned?” Tommy asked.

“No…Finn poured a bottle over me to make sure I wasn’t burning,” Rose said with a distinct air of ingratitude.

“You’re lucky I saw you,” Finn grumbled.

“Thanks. Thanks awfully.” Rose glared at him.

“The state of you,” her father said, shaking his head.

“I’ll give her a dress of Ronja’s,” daia Lee offered, already halfway in the vardo. “And there’s a stream, not five minutes into the wood.”

“Right.” Tommy got up, took Rose’s shoulders and steered her towards the trees.

“I’ll freeze,” she protested.

“You’ll live,” her father said, taking daia Lee’s offering of a dress and a blanket under his arm and pushing her into the darkness.

#

By the time they returned - Rose blue-lipped and relatively clean, her father seemingly content to consider her swim in the freezing stream sufficient punishment - Ronja and Sharon were sitting by the fire. They glanced up at her when she sat down and Rose flashed them a grin.

“ _Devlesa avilan_ , Mister Shelby,” Sharon said politely.

He gave her a nod and lit a cigarette.

“Were you with our Rosie at the fire, girls?” he asked after a drag or two.

“Yea,” Ronja said without blinking an eye and Sharon glanced over at her in alarm, as did Rose.

“And how’s it neither of you looks like a dog’s breakfast?”

Rose and Ronja’s eyes met over the fire. For a moment there was only the two of them, certain that Ronja’s answer would doom them.

“Rosie’s gone soft, Mister Shelby,” Ronja said, giving him her brightest smile. “She can’t jump as high as us anymore, poor little ‘mumper.”

And, as if one miracle wasn’t enough for one day at the fair, Tommy shook his head, laughing – laughing¬ - and reached over to ruffle Rose’s damp hair.

“There’s always somethin’, aye, Rosie?” he asked.

“Yea,” Rose pulled her blanket closer around her indecently lucky self, “always somethin’…”

**Author's Note:**

> Sar'shan - How are you?  
> Hedgemumper/ 'mumper - derogatory term for non-travelling Rom  
> Daia - mother  
> Bitti ozi - little heart  
> Doosta, beebi !- Enough, auntie!  
> Kokko - uncle  
> Ache mai devel - May God bless you  
> Po sastipeh - To your health  
> Te merav - May I die  
> Te shordjol muro rat - May my blood drench the earth  
> Te merel muri shey - May my child die tomorrow


End file.
